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meganbmoore Once there was a child whose face was like the new moon shining on cypress trees and the feathers of waterbirds. She was a strange child, full of secrets...Now this child had a strange an worldful birthmark, in that her eyelids and the flesh around her eyes were stained a deep indigo-black, like ink pooled in china pots.
Because of the mark, the girl was feared and believed to be cursed by a demon. Not willing to risk angering the demon, the people of the sultan's palace banished her to the garden, and even the girl's own parents do not speak to or of her, and the girl grows up with no human contact, with the birds of the garden caring for her, and the fruit of the sultan's trees nourishing her, and the castoffs of the people of the palace clothing her. And in her solitude, she closes her eyes, and reads the endless stories tattooed, in the tiniest of print, inside her eyelids.
Ad once thirteen years had passed in this way, a boy, a son of the sultan, approached her, curiosity winning out overthe fear and caution he has been taught. And the girl tells him a story, and within that story is another, and within it, another, and within the stories the girl tells, a great epic unfolds, and night after night the boy returns to the girl to hear more of the story, even after being forbidden to go to her by his sister, and when his sister imprisons him, the girl goes to him. And like Scheharezade before her, the girl, and Valente herself, never finishes the story she starts the same night.
The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden is not so much as story(though of course it is) as much as it is about stories, and about how every story is comprised of dozens, even hundreds, of other stories, and how there are stories within those stories. The book is almost flawless, and is mythic in ways most things can only dream of being. The stories the girl tells are intricate and detailed, and every detail is utterly necessary for the larger tales she tells, and, it seems, the stories the girl tells are also crucial to the story of the boy addicted to her tales, and the girl who will let nothing stop her from telling them.
Because of the mark, the girl was feared and believed to be cursed by a demon. Not willing to risk angering the demon, the people of the sultan's palace banished her to the garden, and even the girl's own parents do not speak to or of her, and the girl grows up with no human contact, with the birds of the garden caring for her, and the fruit of the sultan's trees nourishing her, and the castoffs of the people of the palace clothing her. And in her solitude, she closes her eyes, and reads the endless stories tattooed, in the tiniest of print, inside her eyelids.
Ad once thirteen years had passed in this way, a boy, a son of the sultan, approached her, curiosity winning out overthe fear and caution he has been taught. And the girl tells him a story, and within that story is another, and within it, another, and within the stories the girl tells, a great epic unfolds, and night after night the boy returns to the girl to hear more of the story, even after being forbidden to go to her by his sister, and when his sister imprisons him, the girl goes to him. And like Scheharezade before her, the girl, and Valente herself, never finishes the story she starts the same night.
The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden is not so much as story(though of course it is) as much as it is about stories, and about how every story is comprised of dozens, even hundreds, of other stories, and how there are stories within those stories. The book is almost flawless, and is mythic in ways most things can only dream of being. The stories the girl tells are intricate and detailed, and every detail is utterly necessary for the larger tales she tells, and, it seems, the stories the girl tells are also crucial to the story of the boy addicted to her tales, and the girl who will let nothing stop her from telling them.